Techniques in astrostatistics help astronomers characterize large amounts of data. The authors of today’s astrobite use data-driven astrostatistics to distinguish between populations of hot Jupiters in a sample. It’s a technique that can definitely be put to good use over the next few decades, as oodles of observations pour in from the new telescopes of the 21st century.

Characterizing planets through direct imaging is no easy task! But today’s authors offer a work-around formula, which estimates the crucial parameter of planetary mass from protoplanetary disk observations. In this astrobite, we discuss ‘The Theory’ and ‘The Practice’ of their cool equation.